News Currents
UNITED STATES
Voters in Illinois are angry at incumbents. Cook County Recorder of Deeds Carol Moseley Braun, a black Democrat, handed incumbent Sen. Alan Dixon his first electoral defeat since 1949 in primary balloting in Illinois Tuesday. Braun, who could become the first black woman in the US Senate, will face Republican Richard S. Williamson, an attorney who has held posts in the Reagan and Bush administrations, in the November general election. Incumbent Democratic Rep. Charles Hayes became the nation's first vict im of the House banking scandal, falling to defeat at the hands of challenger Bobby Rush, a Chicago alderman and former Black Panther. And controversial Rep. Gus Savage (D), also of Illinois, lost to Melvin Reynolds.... The House check-bouncing scandal has spread to President Bush's Cabinet with admissions by Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, Labor Secretary Lynn Martin, and Agriculture Secretary Edward Madigan that they wrote bad checks while members of Congress. President Bush himself is digging through old records just to make sure he didn't bounce any checks when he was in the House 25 years ago.... At the UN, the US, Britain, and France have proposed sanctions against Libya to pressure it into turning over two men suspected of two airline bombings. A draft resolution that would ban all air links and arms sales to Libya may come to a vote next week. MIDDLE EAST AND ASIA
Egypt and Syria, which joined a US-led coalition against Iraq in last year's Gulf war, said yesterday they opposed any further military action against Baghdad. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his Syrian counterpart Hafez al-Assad had just concluded two days of official talks. Assad expressed "bitterness" that UN resolutions concerning Israel were not being enforced with the same vigor as resolutions against Iraq. But the two men also confirmed their adherence to the ongoing peace talks with Israel.. .. Israel vowed yesterday to inflict "painful punishment" on whoever was responsible for the bombing of its embassy in Argentina that killed at least 10 people and wounded more than 100 others. The Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility.... Chinese will pay a lot more for rice and bread beginning April 1 as Beijing presses ahead with price reform, officials said yesterday. EUROPE
Following two days of deadlock, negotiators at the Sarajevo talks reached surprise agreement early yesterday on a plan for ethnic power-sharing in Bosnia-Herzegovina, creating a state composed of three constituent units for the Muslim, Serbian, and Croatian ethnic groups.... Finland's vote to join the European Community brings to six the number of nations wanting to become members of the prosperous Western grouping.... The republic of Georgia plans to hold parliamentary elections by October, earlier if c onditions stabilize, Itar-Tass news agency said yesterday in Moscow.
